Roasted Butternut Squash Soup

Recently, I was shopping at Costco and they had two pound containers of pre-cut butternut squash. Butternut squash is one of my favorite vegetables but it can be a real pain to cut up sometimes so I was very happy to find it already peeled and diced. Oddly enough (or not really!) when I have butternut squash, normally I make risotto. It's one of my favorite meals to make but this time I wanted something a little different. So I made soup!

Wait. What? Soup? Really Heather? Yep. I made soup. The biggest reason really had nothing to do with the type of recipe I wanted to do. I had been rather bad at lunch that day (a hamburger was involved) and I needed a low point dinner, preferably with a focus on veggies. As soon as I got home, I did a quick search and found a butternut squash soup that sounded just perfect.

I did make some changes to it starting with the butternut squash. I love how slightly caramelized butternut squash gets when it's roasted. It brings a great depth of flavor that I thought would be wonderful in soup. The original recipe called for an onion but not being a fan of onions, I usually don't have any in the pantry. I used onion powder instead but you could very easily substitute with chopped onion. The last thing that I changed was just pureeing the soup instead of how it was originally written since I roasted the squash ahead of time. I then left out the final amount of water since it would have made the soup thinner than I wanted.

This was a delicious and surprisingly filling soup. It was worth 4 P+ making it a great bargain as well! Great for light dinner and even better the next day for lunch after the flavors have had a chance to develop more. I served it simply with just some whole wheat saltines on the side (though one day with leftovers I served it with roasted cauliflower).

This recipe is definitely going to be made again and again!

Roasted Butternut Squash Soup
Adapted from a Weight Watchers recipe

Serves 4

2 tsp olive oil
2 lbs butternut squash, peeled, seeded, and coarsely chopped
32 oz chicken broth, reduced sodium and fat free
1 tsp dried rosemary
1 tsp dried sage
2 tsp onion powder
4 Tbsp light sour cream
salt to taste

Heat oven to 425℉. Toss olive oil, squash, sage, and rosemary. Bake for 30 minutes or until slightly carmelized. Add the roasted squash, onion powder, and broth to a pot; bring to a boil. Reduce the heat and simmer about 20 minutes.

Using an immersion blender, puree until the soup has a fluid but creamy consistency.

Garnish each serving with a tablespoon of the sour cream and a sprinkle of the additional sage, if using.

Yields about 1 1/2 cups per serving.